The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!

The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!

Every MMO has fishing. Been there, angled that, am I right? But as of this week, RuneScape has taken this sport to the next level with (wait for it) DEEP SEA FISHING.

Players can cast out their lines at this offshore fishing hub and try their hand at landing prize sea beasts, such as jellyfish, sailfish, great white sharks, and sea turtles. The activity gets even more nuts with a new Fishing Frenzy mechanic, which shows up at skill level 94.

In addition to deep sea fishing, this month offers the epic finale to the pirate quest series, some new enemies in the Unspeakable Horrors, and a revamped Spring Fayre. Get the full preview of March madness after the break!

Fishing has become a hot topic in MMOs this week, thanks to the likes of RuneScape and Albion Online. The latter will see the implementation of fishing in next week’s Lancelot update.

“With the new fishing system, Sandbox Interactive hopes to achieve three major goals: to add a fun new activity for all players, to integrate this activity into Albion’s economy and create interesting economic choices, [and] to implement a relatively simple feature which nonetheless adds depth for players,” the studio’s PR explains. “For example, there is a new Destiny Board path available for fishing, a fishing journal is available for the player’s house, and adventurers can even defeat a massive boss fish and craft it into a trophy.”

In Albion’s latest dev video, Game Director Robin Henkys calls the system the game’s “first major economic addition” since its launch last summer. It’s basically a wind-down mechanic for when you’re retiring from a hard day’s work wrecking faces, as one does, but the idea was to make it engrossing enough to stand on its own too. You can listen to his whole talk in the video below.

RuneScape players who’ve been enjoying the new Clue Scroll content have seen the fun dampened by – what else – rampant exploiting. Jagex hopped on Reddit to explain just what’s going on, starting with the fact that six accounts have been banned, some permanently, some temporarily, with an additional 50+ players banned for being “involved in real-world trading linked to the bug abuse.”

“We acted decisively to minimise the impact this bug had on the health of the game, and our initial analysis shows that the effect on the economy has been negligible,” Mod Infinity wrote. “Once we became aware of the issue we immediately locked all accounts involved as a precautionary measure, allowing us time to fully investigate and review those potentially involved.”

Interestingly, the studio is also pulling all of the illegitimately created (duped?) items from innocent players who bought them on auction – and then reimbursing the innocent players with their currency. A rare and generous move from an MMO studio indeed.

RuneScape is getting yet another update today, and it’s another feature players begged for in last year’s round of Jagex surveys. We’re talking, of course, about the refurbished and more “streamlined and entertaining” Clue Scrolls system. We’re going on a treasure hunt!

“RuneScape’s Clue Scrolls content sets players off on treasure hunt, with a series of clues, riddles and puzzles that lead towards a buried treasure. With the arrival of the Master Tier, Clue Scrolls now has five levels of both difficulty and rewards. Players completing Master Tier hunts stand the chance of finding over 60 new rewards of extremely high in-game value, including Second Age armour, evening outfits, and the high-level elite Robin Hood outfit, representing some of the most valuable non-discontinued items available.”

Jagex will be streaming more details at 11:30 a.m. EST today on its Twitch channel.

“This one-of-a-kind prize will allow you to name a class of Mega Ship in Elite Dangerous,” says the company’s auction listing. “All future Mega Ships added to the game of this class will bear your name for all to see. The winning bidder will also will also get to see this new variant of Mega Ship before anyone else.” It’s currently sitting at £1,021 (almost $1500) right now with about five hours to go. Check out the whole roster of loot on Ebay for a good cause!

It’s time for parties and cake in Old School RuneScape. That’s because the throwback version of the game is turning five years old today. Pretty soon the throwback’s gonna need a throwback! I wasn’t kidding about the party, by the way:

“Old School RuneScape is five years old today, and in celebration of this monumental achievement we’ve got a special event for you to enjoy in-game! […] Help us in celebrating 5 years of Old School RuneScape by heading to the Falador Party room. There you will meet Da Vinci, who by chance, requires some assistance with finishing his painting! The event will remain in-game until the 15th March, giving you plenty of time to lend a helping hand and grab yourself some new holiday rewards!”

Jagex is running a stream today at 2 p.m. EST on its new Twitch channel, where it’ll tease next month’s $20,000-prize 2000-man PvP event. The studio is also rolling out a long list of quality-of-life changes, including tweaks to taps, auto-retaliation, PvP teleportation, and bounty hunter target penalties. Happy 5th birthday, Old School RuneScape!

The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!

In Mining and Smithing 2.0, expect “the ore bag, upgrading equipment, decorating equipment, heating with the forge, non-competitive rocks, new tiers of metal and much more!” Jagex promises. Since it’s a beta, “You’ll find yourself locked into one small area with all the Mining and Smithing content you’ll need. You won’t have access to anything else, including the Artisans’ Workshop, cannonballs, mining outfits, auras, familiars and the toolbelt as these haven’t yet been updated.”

It comes with the territory of Old School RuneScape that players are more interested in the systems and content offerings than the visual pizazz. And while there are those that actually find the retro graphics charming, there is always room for improvements.

Jagex is putting out an update this week that adds many graphical enhancements that have been in the works for a while now. This also marks the start of the “Quality of Life Month” for the game’s development focus, with improvements to Mage Arena II, better user interface functionality, and a couple of dozen other suggestions from the playerbase that the studio put into practice.

And it’s neither here nor there, but did you know that Old School RuneScape is turning five years old on the 22nd? Pretty amazing that this experiment has thrived and lasted so long!

If the newer version of RuneScape is more your jam, then you’ll probably be very interested to hear the plans in the video below that the team has for February. Here’s a quick preview: rework, rework, rework!

Legacy, vanilla, classic, progression – call them what you like, but alternative server rulesets, particularly of the nostalgia-driven kind, are all the rage in 2018. Just since the dawn of the new year, we’ve gotten a new server type for Age of Conan, with RIFT’s on the way – not to mention World of Warcraft’s looming in our future. And those are just the new ones! Games like RuneScape, EverQuest II, and Ultima Online already run similar servers.

That said, does every MMORPG need one? Aren’t some MMORPGs already in pretty good shape without needing a spin-off for nostalgia’s sake? Is it in every MMO’s best interests to prioritize, on some level, the very older ideas it intentionally left behind? That’s the question I’ve posed to the writers this week: Are there any MMORPGs that should stay far, far away from legacy servers, and if so, why?

Looking forward to playing some Old School RuneScape on your phone or tablet this year? That day is getting closer all the time, and a new blog post shares how much space and data the app will use.

The base application for the mobile MMO is 30 MB, which is certainly on the small side. The team estimates that the game will use about 103 MB of data transfer and between 8% and 12% of battery charge per hour of gameplay. [Jagex has since said this figure is not accurate and it is working on a better estimate.]

The team said that it is laying the groundwork for future updates on both Android and iOS: “An MMORPG which receives weekly content and engine updates is somewhat a new concept in mobile gaming, and so one area of difficulty we had to navigate was the manner in which app stores vet app updates. We’ve been engaged in discussions with both Apple and Google to ensure the app is fit for being on the stores, and we’re making good progress with both!”

Over in regular RuneScape, new features such as Aura Management are being added to the game in response to player feedback. “More bank space and less faff” are the results of this change.